It is almost time for us to put down our quill pens and leave the scriptorium for the last time this year. Three weeks of quiet retreat are in the offing, a chance for us to recharge our batteries and plan a few journeys for 2010. So a good moment, perhaps, to look back and » Read more

A few months back, we gave Belarus a mention here on EuroCheapo. No surprises of course that our posting opened up a mini-debate on the ethics of travel to a country that wins no awards for liberal enlightenment. Yet, it is precisely because of its unusual politics that Belarus is a top destination for European » Read more

Last week Berlin hosted the ITB 2009. The ITB is a travel extravaganza, a huge trade fair devoted to extolling the merits of countries from Sarawak to Sardinia. Europe made a good showing of course, with almost every country of the continent there to present its case for a share of the tourist dollar. Almost every. » Read more

Photo courtesy of hidden europe magazine Cheapos clearly like to get under the skin of a city, probing well beyond the regular sights to get a feel for what makes a community tick. Faith is often still part of the fabric of European life, but getting a feel for it as a foreigner isn’t always easy – » Read more

Photo by Gumerov Ildar If you’re old enough to remember flower power and Woodstock, then you’ll probably recall the Keflavík stopover. Budget-conscious air travelers in the sixties used Loftleiðir (now part of Icelandair) to hop between the USA and Europe. Loftleiðir undercut the high fares of IATA airlines and pulled a young crowd of first » Read more

Brits are of course now labouring under a diet of cold turkey. Christmas generates its own extraordinary traditions across Europe, which differ greatly from country to country. There is no such thing as a standard-issue European Christmas. The English certainly like their turkey on the Christmas table, but elsewhere across the continent firm Christmas favourites » Read more

Italian semi-low-cost carrier AlpiEagles now offers flights to a wide range of destinations across Eastern Europe. Forget the now standard destinations in Poland, the Baltics, Slovakia, and Croatia—AlpiEagles flies to even less well-served markets across Eastern Europe. Among its destinations are Bucharest, Club-Napoca, and Timisoara in Romania, Chisinau (Moldova), Kiev (Ukraine), and Moscow. When push » Read more

Despite the fact that a final political status for Kosovo is not yet in sight, travel to the territory appears to be picking up. One low-cost carrier and several other standard airlines now fly to Prishtina, Kosovo‘s capital. We checked with four competitors to see how much it would cost to fly to Prishtina from » Read more

While researching new listings for the upcoming EuropeanHostels.com relaunch, we found our jaws dropping at the concentration of cheap hotels in several cities in Eastern Europe. Here, a brief digest of three cities particularly well suited to cheap sleepers. Exhibit A: Budapest, which is just about neck and neck with Amsterdam in terms of cheap » Read more